2 Year Sting Nets FBI Dozens of Suspected Cybercrooks
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested dozens of alleged cyber-criminals in an international sting to crack down on Internet fraudsters. The arrests were the result of a two-year global sting operation conducted by the FBI and designed to nab hackers in "carding" crimes, in which perpetrators steal credit card or other personal information via the Internet and then conduct fraudulent transactions. Through an operation called "Operation Card Shop", undercover FBI agents created an online forum named "Carder Profit", where hackers could communicate and exchange hacking tips or services in what they thought was a secure space. The FBI imposed certain restrictions to join the site in order to maintain an appearance that it was a safe site. Through "Carder Profit", agents were able to gain information from hackers, monitor their communication and obtain the IP and e-mail addresses of the suspected cyber-criminals. The FBI arrested 24 individuals in 13 countries, including the US, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Norway, and Germany, while domestic authorities nabbed suspects in states including New York, California and Florida.
The individuals that were arrested are suspected to have engaged in several Internet crimes. One suspect sold malware for $50 a copy that would allow the virus user to take over and control a victim's computer. The suspect boasted his sales, and said that he infected "thousands" of computers. Other suspects are alleged to have used "dumps", which refers to stolen credit card data that is stored on magnetic strips on the back of credit cards. They sold "dumps" in exchange for cash, a camera and iPads to undercover FBI agents. Others were arrested for crimes such as using stolen credit cards to fraudulently obtain replacement Apple products to resell for profit or selling full credit card data obtained from hacking into an online hotel booking site. These high-profile federal arrests could serve as a warning to other cyber-criminals, and law enforcement is taking Internet fraud very seriously. Although the law may focus on fighting fraudulent online activity, the Web will most likely never be eradicated of cyber-criminals. RSA Encryption 'Crack' Rattles Infosec Industry Claims by a team of international cryptographic researchers that they have "cracked" the RSA encryption used on a number of smartcards and secure tokens has set off a big storm in the security world. Scientists from France, Italy, Norway and the United States have found a method for compromising the code in as little as 13 minutes. They plan to divulge more details in a paper they will present at a conference in August. Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography in the computer science department at Johns Hopkins University, says that the RSA encryption crack "could be a big deal because there may be applications out (in the public) vulnerable to this attack". RSA, though, contends the danger attributed to the research is being exaggerated. They claim that their product is not cracked, and that you can only get certain things of the device, but not the private key; you can't clone the private key. In public key cryptology, information is encrypted using a public key that's freely available to anyone. Information encrypted with a public key can only be decrypted with a private key that's paired to it. If someone could obtain a private key and make copies of it, or clone it, they could raise havoc with an organization's digital security. 35/50
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested dozens of alleged cyber-criminals in an international sting to crack down on Internet fraudsters.
The arrests were the result of a two-year global sting operation conducted by the FBI and designed to nab hackers in "carding" crimes, in which perpetrators steal credit card or other personal information via the Internet and then conduct fraudulent transactions. Through an operation called "Operation Card Shop", undercover FBI agents created an online forum named "Carder Profit", where hackers could communicate and exchange hacking tips or services in what they thought was a secure space. The FBI imposed certain restrictions to join the site in order to maintain an appearance that it was a safe site. Through "Carder Profit", agents were able to gain information from hackers, monitor their communication and obtain the IP and e-mail addresses of the suspected cyber-criminals. The FBI arrested 24 individuals in 13 countries, including the US, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Norway, and Germany, while domestic authorities nabbed suspects in states including New York, California and Florida.
The individuals that were arrested are suspected to have engaged in several Internet crimes. One suspect sold malware for $50 a copy that would allow the virus user to take over and control a victim's computer. The suspect boasted his sales, and said that he infected "thousands" of computers. Other suspects are alleged to have used "dumps", which refers to stolen credit card data that is stored on magnetic strips on the back of credit cards. They sold "dumps" in exchange for cash, a camera and iPads to undercover FBI agents. Others were arrested for crimes such as using stolen credit cards to fraudulently obtain replacement Apple products to resell for profit or selling full credit card data obtained from hacking into an online hotel booking site. These high-profile federal arrests could serve as a warning to other cyber-criminals, and law enforcement is taking Internet fraud very seriously. Although the law may focus on fighting fraudulent online activity, the Web will most likely never be eradicated of cyber-criminals.
RSA Encryption 'Crack' Rattles Infosec Industry
Claims by a team of international cryptographic researchers that they have "cracked" the RSA encryption used on a number of smartcards and secure tokens has set off a big storm in the security world. Scientists from France, Italy, Norway and the United States have found a method for compromising the code in as little as 13 minutes. They plan to divulge more details in a paper they will present at a conference in August. Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography in the computer science department at Johns Hopkins University, says that the RSA encryption crack "could be a big deal because there may be applications out (in the public) vulnerable to this attack". RSA, though, contends the danger attributed to the research is being exaggerated. They claim that their product is not cracked, and that you can only get certain things of the device, but not the private key; you can't clone the private key. In public key cryptology, information is encrypted using a public key that's freely available to anyone. Information encrypted with a public key can only be decrypted with a private key that's paired to it. If someone could obtain a private key and make copies of it, or clone it, they could raise havoc with an organization's digital security.
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